This is why I haven’t been around for the last week or so:

Also this:

And then there is this:
 
I wrote about losing my sweet girl Gigi last summer. I didn’t write about how almost exactly a month later, Dune also died from a tumor in his lung. It was just too sad. So now, after living for seven months with no cats in our house, we brought home two new babies. Officially, they are Mr. Lucy’s Birthday/Christmas presents, although, honestly, I was ready for a new kitty myself. So up there at the top is Petey, and the little calico/bengal mix is Lucy. We decided that we really ought to have someone in our house actually named Lucy. Now that I think about it, I’m going to have to come up with a new nickname for Mr. Lucy, because otherwise that would imply that he is married to our cat, which is just weird. As he is a very private person, he doesn’t like his actual real name to be used on the internet. Maybe someone in my family will have a better suggestion?

So, anyway, Petey and Lucy are 8 months and 9 months old, respectively. We got them from the Helen Woodward Animal Center, which is such a nice facility. They had been there for about 6 months, and were living together in the same kennel. It’s completely different having two kittens, we didn’t realize how used we were to our old cats. These two are either bouncing off the walls, or doing this:

There doesn’t seem to be an in-between state for them. Although this morning it was so warm we had the back door open and they discovered the chickens:

One or both of them were at the door until I left for work. As far as I know, they could still be there. It’s like television for cats!

Expect to see more of this little buggers, although it’s taken me all week to get any decent pictures of them, they move so fast. I still have to get a good picture of Lucy with her golden tiger eyes open.

As for the chickens, remember how I had 19 hens, and had given 4 to one co-worker and 3 to another? Well, the three hens turned out to be 2 hens and a rooster. And since that co-worker lives in a residential area, the rooster was kind of a problem. So we agreed to trade one of my hens for the rooster, and now the lucky devil gets to live here with 18 hens. Oddly enough, they had named him General Tso, before they realized she was a he. How’s that for foreshadowing? Here is another picture of him:

He’s quite the looker. He’s an Araucana, and he crows. A lot. This morning at 4:30 our neighbor started up his Harley. This woke up the General and he started crowing. We didn’t hear the Harley, but we sure did hear the General. If nothing wakes him up during the night, he starts to crow at about 6:30, which is alright during the week, because I should really be up by then myself. On Saturday? Not so much. We’re getting used to the sound though, and I think it will eventually just be another background noise here on the farm.

It’s always good to come home. I’ve been back since late Monday night, but have been busy catching up at work and at home. Next week will be all about catching up on blogs and comments, I think! I love getting comments so much, so if I haven’t responded to your comment in the last couple weeks, you’ll be hearing from me soon, I am definitely not ignoring you!

I went to bed last night to a light, sprinkling rain, and woke up to a few inches of snow. The picture above is my little town. Click it to see a really big version. That’s pretty much the whole town right there. Sometimes it feels like stepping back in time when I come home.

This is chicken alley. You can’t see it, but our shed is to the right (the bikes are leaning against it), and there is a short wall on the left, so the chickens hang out there a lot because it’s sheltered from the weather. We had some pretty high winds last week, and Mr. Lucy told me that one of the Barred Rocks had ventured out of the alley onto the driveway where she was caught in a gust of wind and went feet over tail, just like a tumbleweed. And then she went back into the chicken coop. I guess she didn’t like the wind too much. In this picture, several of them are running to me, hoping for a treat. Too bad I just have my camera, they already had plenty of treats today!

In another wind and animal story, there were also some very large gusts that blew a chunk of shingles and the top of our chimney off the roof. Our insurance company sent someone out the other night to tarp the roof, knowing that we had a storm coming in. The contractor put a big, black, plastic bag over the chimney pipe. Yesterday morning when I let the dogs out, Bear was looking at the roof and barking suspiciously. I think he thought the plastic bag was a person standing on the roof. It’s good to know that we are safe from suspicious plastic bags.

So it’s a new year, and I’m not making resolutions, exactly, but I do have plans to take better care this year. I’m going to take better care of myself and my home and of course, Mr. Lucy, who is going to be eating more vegetables this year, whether he wants to or not. Happily, I have a three day weekend, so there will be much cooking of aforementioned vegetables, as well as some serious cleaning and clearing out of the house.

Oh, and you can read more about how I rang in the new year here. There may be video of me behind the microphone, but I plan on doing every thing in my power to insure that it does not see the light of day. All in all though, it was a crazy fun time. Although why does silly string take less than 5 minutes to spray out of the can, and 5 hours to clean up?

I haven’t taken pictures of the chickens for a few weeks, so while I’m home this morning waiting to go to the airport to pick up my sister-in-law, I braved the cold wind and took a few. The girls are already 9 weeks old. They’ve grown up so fast *sniff*. I was at the feed store, my new weekend hangout, recently, and they had just received a new batch of chicks. I was amazed by how tiny they were. They were so cute, it made me want to get some more. I’m going to resist the temptation for now. Our little coop is crowded as it is. I don’t remember if I mentioned that seven of then have gone on to new homes. Three went to one co-worker and four went to another. I was relieved to find good homes for them with owners willing to provide the occasional photographic evidence that they are not being eaten, but are being kept as pets and for egg production. :o)

After a short period of typical teenage attitude, I’m happy to report that Fuzzy is once again my favorite girl. She ignored me for a few weeks, and I thought she had forgotten all the good times we shared watching TV and knitting. It turns out that it was just a phase, and she once again is the first at the door when I open it, and is quite happy to jump up on my knee or climb up on my shoulder. It looks like the last of her feathers are coming in on her back, under her wings, and she suddenly has this big tail:

The Buffs are still adorably cute and fluffy, but this one was a little nervous when I carried her over to this table and set her down. She wouldn’t stand up:

How cute is she, though?

This little Barred Rock is the piglet of the group:

Besides Fuzzy, she is always the first at the door when I come visit. I’m pretty sure it’s not my company she’s after, but the treats that I always bring with me. She always gets more than her fair share, but she’s one of the smaller chickens. She’s also the most curious. She was pecking at the camera lens while I was trying to take pictures. I have a few shots of nothing more than blurry black and white feathers.

The other day I had some left over brown rice, so I thought I’d see if they’d like it. I held out a little, and they sniffed at it suspiciously, but sort of backed away from it. Meanwhile, as he usually does when I’m at the hen house door, Bear had sidled up and stuck his head in to see what was going on. He sniffed at the rice and then started eating it. That was all it took. Suddenly the chickens all wanted some rice, and I couldn’t feed it to them fast enough. It was so funny to watch. The chickens all seem to like Bear, or at the least are very curious about him. He’s also gotten to the point where I know that when I’m out there, he won’t hurt the chickens. He sniffs at them and watches them, but he doesn’t drool as much any more. I know it just about kills him that there are all these birds and he can’t have them, but he also knows that I love them and he better not hurt them. I don’t have any plans to let them free-range while he’s out there, though. That would just be asking too much from him.

UPDATE: I almost forgot, one of my brother‘s songs will be featured on tonight’s episode of Men in Trees. Please watch! We’re pretty excited here at chez Lucy :o)

I made a sock for Fall:

The other one is underway. Mr. Lucy was laughing at me for taking a picture of one sock, but I was excited and had to share. It’s my second pair using the Embossed Leaves pattern, which I just like so much. The yarn is Lorna’s Laces and the colorway is called Aslan. I may have bought this yarn just because of the name. I’m not much of a beige/brown person, but this colorway is actually quite pretty. I wonder if I can rake my rug?

Last weekend I decided to join up with the Apartment Therapy Fall Cure, and cure my guest house of all its ills. I made a lot of progress. I got rid of four big 3-drawer plastic bins. They were ugly and they took up a lot of space and they weren’t working. As I was clearing out the drawers I kept coming accross fabric that I had totally forgotten about. Now it’s all arranged on shelves and I can easily see what I’ve got. I’m such a sucker for organizing gadgets, but just because something is made to get you organized, it doesn’t mean it actually will. I’ve thinned out my fabric quite a lot, but there is still so much! I’d better start using it. Here is a progress picture:

The main thing I want to get done, after I get all the junk cleaned out, is to paint everything white, and then I’m going to hang some curtains in front of the bookcases to finish everything off nicely. I’m sure I’ll be showing more progress photos as I get things done. The TV may also get a new table and I have some other ideas percolating as well.

I’ll leave you with some current chicken portraits:

That’s Fuzzy in the first picture, and then one of the Silver-Laced Wyandottes and one of the Rhode Island Reds. They are looking like little chickens now, I’ve started calling them chucks at Yvonne’s suggestion in the comments a couple entries back. I think that’s a perfect name for them and it makes me smile. They are starting to make little clucking noises, although they still peep a lot. They like going outside and scratching around and they love the lettuce and cabbage leaves that I bring them for treats. So, the chucks seem to be thriving :o)

Despite the chicken pictures you may see below, this entry is only going to have a little bit of chicken content. Mostly what I’d like to talk about is risotto. I don’t have a picture of risotto, however, because even though I get up well after what you might consider The Crack of Dawn (which always makes me think of graag gedaan, or "You’re welcome" in Dutch. Just thought I’d mention that.), it’s so darn dark in the morning that I have no presentable photographs of the delicious risotto that I made for my bento box today. Which is really no great loss, because risotto isn’t the prettiest of dishes, but it sure is delicious! So, you’re just going to have to imagine what my risotto-filled bento box looked like. Anyway, it’s the flavor that matters, much more than the appearance.

I’ve been craving risotto for over a week, which is a common occurance for me as the nights get cold and frosty. I finally made the time to make some this morning. I do have to add a disclaimer: I am not Italian, not in the least, not even a drop. I’ve been to Italy only once, for a weekend trip. I don’t know if my short visit can really be used to gauge fairly, but every single thing I ate during those 48 hours (and there was quite a bit of eating going on) was perfectly delicious. Also part of the disclaimer: I’ve not seen many Italian food cooking shows. Molto Mario? I just know he wears brightly colored clogs. Is Emeril Italian? I have no idea. But the point is, I am not an Italian food expert. So this risotto recipe may or may not be authentic, I just thought I’d share anyway, because it is darn good risotto, so try it yourself and see, and let me know what you think:

Risotto a la Lucy

First, heat up some chicken stock in a saucepan to simmering. A big can or carton will do. If you are ambitious enough to have homemade, kudos to you. I don’t have time for that kind of stuff. In another saucepan, drizzle enough olive oil to generously coat the bottom, and turn the heat up to medium-high. Once the oil is hot, add about a cup of arborio rice and a minced clove of garlic (I like to use my garlic press, then I don’t have to smell garlic on my fingers all day). Stir it around so that all the bits of rice are coated with oil, about 2 minutes. Lower the heat to about medium. Add a ladle-full of the stock and stir it in. The rice will absorb it in a minute or two. Add another ladle-full and stir it in. Keep repeating this process for 15-20 minutes. Keep stirring. You can step away for a moment at a time to wash some vegetables or get some parmesan cheese out of the refrigerator, but don’t leave it for more than a moment. Some people might consider this a little high maintenence, but really, it’s only 15-20 minutes of your life, and the result is more than worth it. You’ll notice that the rice absorbs the stock really quickly at first, but then slows down a bit. This is how you know its getting closer to being done. That’s when you want to get to grating a nice sized chunk of parmesan (2 or 3 inches, I’d say). I use my microplane for this, and I grate until I’m just tired of grating, which means I usually end up with a mound of parmesan that looks like a cup to a cup and a half. Test a grain of rice. When it’s nearly soft (you don’t want it totally soft, there should be a little bit of bite in the center) add a couple tablespoons of heavy cream (this is my secret ingredient, don’t tell anyone. It makes it super extra creamy). Stir that in well and then blend in the parmesan. You may want to reduce the heat to low at this point. Now taste it. Between the chicken stock and the parmesan, you probably won’t need salt, but if you think it does, go ahead and add it now. Grind in a whole lot of black pepper, and serve mounded in the center of pasta bowls with some parmesan shavings and another grind of pepper on top. Yum!

I love it just plain like this, but you can add all kinds of things in at the end. Some combinations that I have tried: Prosciutto and peas (pancetta or bacon would work well too), asparagus, sautéed wild mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes and rosemary. Any other ideas? I’m always willing to experiment. Let me know if you try my recipe, and how it works out for you.

Now for the brief bit of chicken content. I moved the chicks out to their coop this weekend:

Action shots! I think they like all the space. I built the roost in the first picture. I’m still patting myself on the back for that accomplishment. I don’t have a lot of high-tech tools, and I discovered that my little handsaw? Not so great for cutting anything bigger than the bars on the roost. The 2x4s for the frame? Those were just a little too big for it, but I struggled through, and made it work. Also, it’s hinged on the top, so when I want to clean the floor below, all I have to do is lift it up! Nifty!

I was pretty worried about them getting through the night, but they seem to have made it just fine for two nights now. I left the light on all night so they’d be warm, and it seems to be tightly enough constructed that no bad critters can get in to get at them. Bear is having fits though. He knows I don’t want him near them, but when he sees them he starts foaming at the mouth. He was like that with the cats at first too, but he knew not to hurt them or someone would have his neck. Okay, not really, but he naturally has a guilty conscience, so we do tend to use that against him a little bit. All we have to do is so NO slightly firmly and he puts his head down and looks guilty. So that’s his big punishment, just a NO and he is completely chastised.